Feeling the need – the need to READ!!

Zanna took to reading like a duck to water, and whenever her school has a reading incentive program, she’s like a little literary Terminator, just plowing through all available books and diligently recording each book in her reading log. If there are prizes to be had – she WILL get one, or know the reason why!

Halle, however, has inherited my very low boredom threshold for repetitive tasks. Unfortunately, most of the things taught in school, such as reading, writing and math, involve tons of repetition to get the foundational skills down.

Trying to teach her to read was like pulling teeth at times. All the engaging workbooks I bought last summer to catch her up were viewed as though I’d asked her to eat moldy worms.

And then she got into some of the cool things that I like – superheroes, Star Trek and the like. I started showing her some of the cartoons that I’d liked at her age (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth), and we’d be geeking out together while Zanna had a ball playing My Little Pony with her father >:D

So I did some amazoning and found a set of phonics books with Scooby Doo. Halle loved them! And then I found some local comic book shops that had decently sized “Family Friendly” sections. While Zanna enjoyed Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony, and Peanuts, Halle was thrilled with Scrooge McDuck, Scooby Doo and some Spiderman titles that were on the tamer side. We fought over who got dibs on the new Star Trek reboot ‘verse comics. Sometimes I even hear the girls in the backseat of the car squabbling over who gets the next turn with the Smurfs comic.

At first Halle would ask to have everything read to her, but as that depended on a reader having free time, she grew frustrated at having to wait and soon she was making the effort to read her comics all by herself!

She still likes being read to, but mostly it’s for bonding purposes, as she has become a pretty good reader herself!

A few weeks ago, I took Halle to Free Comic Book day at a couple of our local comic shops and she got to meet Spiderman himself! She was thrilled about it, and about getting a pile of comics for free! We shared our new stash with Zanna, and now there are several new titles both the girls are interested in: